Shama receives referrals from a wide range of sources, including the Integrated Safety Response, Social Service Agencies, Women’s Refuge, Work and Income New Zealand, DHB, CAB, Birth Centre, and of course the women themselves as well as their friends and relatives. Once a referral has been received, as much information as possible is then gathered about the person to identify both areas of concern and areas of strength.

This information from the assessment is then used to develop a social work intervention appropriate to the client’s needs. That intervention plan is used to empower the women, strengths to their individual needs, with clear timeframes that can be used to review progress. The plan is reviewed and revised on a regular basis, and may include:

Group programmes, such as Life Skills classes incorporating English, computers, sewing, cooking and conversation class, as well as legal and domestic violence workshop.

Support and advocacy – for example, helping access services such as solicitors, immigration, WINZ, medical support, IRD, and JP (Justice of Peace)

Drop-in centre to meet other women.

Children’s Holiday Programme

Safety plans

Parenting and positive relationships workshops

Our work in the areas of education, empowerment, and community awareness aims at preventing family violence tended to be couched in terms of family safety, family health, and family development. This is because family violence is a sensitive topic for ethnic communities, and ‘family safety’ was a more acceptable way of framing.